Aiming to jolt the rest of the world to action, President Barack Obama moved ahead Sunday with even tougher greenhouse gas cuts on American power plants, setting up a certain confrontation in the courts with energy producers and Republican-led states.

Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch warned America is "done for" if the conservative donors and politicians he gathered at a retreat this weekend don't rally others to their cause of demanding a smaller, less-intrusive government.

California Sen. Ron Calderon strolled into the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas two years ago primed for another weekend of fun. In a 10th floor room, overlooking the hotel's iconic dancing fountains, his plans folded.